Wheel Bug

Description:

A Mexican Wheel Bug!! So exciting. I haven't ever seen this one before. It's thoracic "Wheel" is small and the tips rounded into little balls. The membranous part of the wings is dark. It was 3 cm long and both the male and the female were on the same bush. Family Reduviidae, Subfamily Harpactocorinae.

Habitat:

Heavy shrubbery along the highway between San Cristobal de Las Casas and Tuxtla Gutierrez, km 11.5, 865 meters.

Notes:

I do not think that this is Arilus cristatus the infamous Northamerican Wheel Bug. The pronotal crest is smaller and lower without the higher center of A. cristatus. Also the legs, proboscis and antennae are all brown, whereas A. cristatus has some orange-red coloring. This mexican specimen looks virtually identical to this one from Costa Rica (http://www.flickr.com/photos/lonqueta/41...) and it is not known whether that one is Arilus gallus, A. carinatus or A. depressicollis. The latter is shown to occur in Mexico but I can't find a picture for A. depressicollis. (http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=R...). There are a couple of other species as well.